With oil prices hovering above $90 per barrel, it may be a matter of time before that figure rises past the psychological $100 mark. Fortunately, this sharp increase has not translated into higher gas prices in the US and the pump prices are still below the $3 per gallon post-Katrina prices. This has been attributed to a myriad of factors in addition to the drop in post-summer gas demand.
During my recent trip to the UK, as is always the case when I rent a car, I selected an economy model vehicle because of the nature of the roads and the high petrol prices in the UK. Unfortunately, Avis did not have an automatic economy model on the morning that I arrived and instead offered me an upgrade that comes with the automatic transmission. At first I declined and decided to take the manual economy vehicle instead of the full size Volkswagon Passat Estate. However, after some thought over the ease of driving a manual in a foreign land and the recommendation of the Avis agent I accepted the upgrade. The turning point for me was when she said it is has a better fuel economy as it was a diesel model.
Because I'd never driven a VW before I decided I might as well try it just in case I want to buy one in the future. When I picked the car, the tank was full so I did not have to refuel it and I had hoped that I will refuel it somewhere near Heathrow airport on the day of departure. True to my wishes the fuel lasted until I made my way back to the airport. Just as I left Bluewater shopping mall and got onto the M25, the low fuel warning icon lit up. With the nearest motorway service less than 15 miles away I choose to drive to it as it was in the direction to the airport rather than get off the highway.
I got to the gas station and started refueling the car with diesel. Unlike the gas pumps in the US, the pump was not automatic. You have to manually pump the petrol into your car until you are done. As I refueled, I wondered how much it would take to fill the tank. My guess was that it would cost me no more than £40 for the just over £1 per liter diesel.
So you can imagine my surprise when I fueled past the £40 mark then the £50 and then finally the £60 mark. Blimey! In total I was paying more than $135 dollars at the current exchange rate to fill up the station wagon. As if it was not enough that I had trouble trying to parallel park the estate and drive through the narrow streets, here I was literally paying through the nose for what was supposed to be a fuel economy model.
My guesstimate is that I averaged over 30 miles on the gallon driving a total of 600 miles during the few days I was in the UK. The majority of which were on the motorways as I travelled a bit in the South East.
The $137 I paid to fill-up the car is definitely a new gas pump record for me. Prior to this, the highest I had ever paid was $70 and even then this was for less than $3 per gallon gas in a Manhattan full-service gas station (attendant pumps the gas). And this amount included the tip for the attendant who in addition wiped clean the car's windscreen.
Had I been in the US, the 16.94 liters of diesel would have cost $52. Even in Kenya, I don't think I've ever paid more than 5,000 shillings for petrol to fill up the car tank. In this case, I would have paid 4,750 shillings for the approximately 17 liters of diesel had I been in Nairobi. Basically, diesel in the UK costs almost three times as much than in the US. As for the cost of the car rental, that would be another post altogether. Possibly a post on driving in the UK. For now, I'm just waiting to receive my credit card statement though I've had a peek at it online.
